Tag Archives: alice in chains

Was you ever bit by a dead bee? – Eddie, 1944 movie To Have and Have Not

You might be under the impression that the “Bee Girl” era actually happened with Blind Melon’s song No Rain released in 1992. It actually goes back further than to 1983 with Joe Elliott decided to use Lauren Bacall’s dress in To Have and Have Not as inspiration for Julia Robert’s hooker dress in the movie Pretty Woman (see previous post “Oh! Pretty Woman).

One day Kurt kept pressuring me to come up with a new song. Joe Elliott was standing near by. I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with them that day and I sat down on the stage. I said, “I’ve got no new tale to tell.”

After a minute, I stood up and started making up a song which became No New Tale To Tell performed by some of the former members of the band Bauhaus who formed the band Love and Rockets. The song was released on the 1987 album Earth, Sun, Moon album.

If you do not know who Bauhaus is, they were featured in David Bowie’s and Susan Sarandon’s ’83 cult classic The Hunger with their song from 1979 “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”.

The music video for No New Tale to Tale was the start of the Bee Girl era along with the image of a monkey, a symbol for Michael Jackson’s chimp Bubbles. This included Kurt Cobain’s collection of toy monkeys and the use of a toy monkey in the Alice In Chains music video Grind.

The idea to start naming bands for “fruit” came from the use of “peach” in Pour Some Sugar On Me performed by Def Leppard and U Got The Look performed by Prince and Shiela E. It also came from me joking around with INXS sayingthey were the vegetables and I being the fruit.

This is how I came up with the name when Billy Corgan asked me what he should name his band and I said “Smashing Pumpkins” and also named the band “Blind Melon”, with Melons and Pumpkins being a fruit.

The band Krokus which had been on tour with Def Leppard on the Rock Till You Drop Tour in 1983, released To Rock or Not to Be (a reference to the movie To Have and Have Not starring Bogey and Bacall) in 1995 also used the image on the cover art.

One day while Kurt (Cobain) and I were working on songs, he pulled a sheet of notebook paper out of his back pocket which happened to be the lyrics for what would become “Bee Girl” performed by Pearl Jam.

“Bee girl, you’re gonna die.You don’t wanna be famous, you wanna be shy.Do your dances alone in your room.Becoming a star will become your doom.Bee Girl, be a girl

You know time is long, and life is short.Begin to live while you still can.Believe in nothing, believe me, Those who can be trusted can change their mind.When the anxious is the present, unwrap your gifts, take your time.Everything you imagine needn’t be stuck in your mind.Bee Girl, be a girl… “ – Bee Girl performed by Pearl Jam

“She should have stayed away from friendsShe should have had more time to spendShe should have died when she was bornShe should have worn the crown of thornsShe should have been a son” – Been A Son, Nirvana

“Ain’t found a way to kill me yetEyes burn with stinging sweatSeems every path leads me to nowhereWife and kids, household petArmy green was no safe betThe bullets scream to me from somewhereYeah they come to snuff the rooster” – Rooster

Alice In Chains was another Seattle band which early on Kurt Cobain co-founded and I wrote a few songs for them. Including “Man in a Box” which I explained in an earlier post.

The idea for the song Rooster came from learning about the history of another Alabama native, Record Producer Sam Phillips famous for discovering Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Howlin’ Wolf . In the 1960’s Howlin’ Wolf released a song by the name of The Red Rooster (sometimes called Little Red Rooster).

Inspiration for the beginning of the song Rooster and the music video came from Def Leppard’s “Die Hard the Hunter” from their 1983 album Pyromania.

Other influences on Alice in Chain were in music videos. For “Man in a Box” there is a monk for the ones in Def Leppard’s Rock of Ages video, Joe Elliott told me was inspired by Jimmy Page’s dream sequence in Led Zeppelin’s film “The Song Remains The Same”. When I was 15 my Halloween costume was inspired by the Rock of Ages monks and Kurt Cobain made a drawing of it for a Nirvana concert poster.

Kurt Cobain was also known to have a collection of toy monkeys and there is one in the music video for “Grind”.

I’m the man in the box
Buried in my ****
Won’t you come and save me, save meFear in my eyes, can you sew them shut?Jesus Christ, deny your makerHe who tries, will be wastedFear in my eyes now you’ve sewn them shut

I’ve mentioned how Alan Parsons’ song Turn It Up inspired the ’98 movie City of Angels in my previous post. Michael Jackson’s ’88 hit song Man in the Mirror and the music video for Turn It Up inspired me to write the ’91 hit song Man in a Box performed by Seattle band Alice In Chains. Again, the Def Leppard song Wasted is mentioned in the lyrics.

Come Mr. DJ song pon de replay Come Mr. DJ won’t you turn the music up All the gyal pon the dancefloor wantin some more what Come Mr. DJ won’t you turn the music up

The title “Turn It Up” inspired the lyrics when I wrote Pon de Replay, the debut song for Rihanna.

Ricky Martin and Robi “Draco” Rosa of the Puerto Rico boy group Menudo showed up in my life about 1984. The music video for Turn It Up inspired the music video for Ricky Martin’s 2000 song She Bang.

Amy Lee

Singer, songwriter, founder of the band Evanescence. I was discovered by Joe Elliott, lead singer of Def Leppard, and a yet unknown Kurt Cobain in May of '83.
I am not the lead singer Amy Lynn Hartzler.